More greenfield projects for Navy: Mehta

"The Ministry of Shipping is setting up one ship building yard on each of the two coasts (east and west). Somebody must set up more greenfield projects for ship building as operational yards as the Mazgaon Docks Limited have limitations (of capacity)," Admiral Mehta said, after the conclusion of a two-day Naval Commanders Conference.

"We will also see more of private partnerships in the area", he said, adding that construction major L&T has expressed interest in putting up such a project and have plans to place orders with the company in the near future.

Ideally, the country needs two operational aircraft carriers and other ships. Efforts are on to have three aircraft carriers in the fleet while 34 ships and six submarines are already being constructed to take the total number of ships to 160, he added.

He further said that right now the country does not have an operational aircraft carrier and the situation could have been averted, had aircraft carrier 'Vikramaditya' arrived on time. The ship is expected from Russia in three years' time.

The indigenous carrier building project at Cochin is on as per the schedule and the ship is expected in 2012. "The facility is expected to be used as a permanent carrier building line and will produce a carrier after the completion of the first ship. One more will be ready by the time 'Vikramaditya' retires," he said.

The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov (re-christened as Vikramaditya) is currently undergoing refurbishment and the project was delayed due to cost escalation factors.

Meanwhile, Admiral Mehta also endorsed the use of the time-saving block-wise system of ship building as compared to the "keel-up" concept traditionally adopted by India yards.

"Ships are divided into five blocks and built simultaneously at different locations, thereby saving time. During a visit to UK, I saw each block was of around 1,500 tonnes but I will ask the Cochin yard making the aircraft carrier to consider building blocks of 350-400 tonnes each," Admiral Mehta said.

Admiral Mehta also said that the Navy will be implementing the "Network Centric Operations" programme under which platforms under sea, on it and in the air are integrated with a single communications platform.

The implementation of the project which gives a clear picture on the surroundings will start by this year-end on one platform per time.      The programme is being carried out in-house and with the help of companies like Satyam Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services can be sought for developing software for the system, Mehta said.

Meanwhile, the chief of naval staff also said that in the wake of increased economic prosperity, the country also needs to enhance the numbers of merchant ships for transportation of civilian goods and tankers for energy security.